Thursday and Halloween

Yesterday Brian went bike riding and Hattie decided to get up at 6:15. Ugh. So it was an early start for me even though it wasn't a hike day. I did go to aerobics later after Eliza and Libby got off to school. After aerobics, Terri invited me to their ward's park day, so we went to that. It was funny--the moms sat around the picnic table and all the kids just hovered around us. We were like--we are at the park, now play!! We came home from there and ate lunch, then the afternoon was busy. It was singing and soccer. Eliza got a ride to singing and I took Libby to soccer and stayed with her until it was over. Then I had visiting teaching and had to do a little grocery shopping.

Today we hiked again--Rachel was back on board after being under the weather on Monday and Wed. We didn't run at the end, so I was happy about that! This afternoon Kari watched my two little ones so I could go help out at Eliza's fall party. I was in charge of the "Pumpkin Life Cycle" station. It was pretty mindless, but fun to see all the kids and to see Eliza in her classroom setting. One of the stations was decorating pumpkins and Eliza was so creative--she made a little bow out of some foam shapes. She put two hearts on their sides and put a circle in center to make the bow. It was so cute.

Now for Halloween Night...for some reason it felt like this night was about 10 hours long.








I put off putting the girls in their costumes as long as I could. They wanted to start right when they got home from school. I finally gave in at about 4:30. So everyone got in their costumes and I took some pictures. I just think they looked beautiful! Eliza was a witch, Libby was a fairy princess, Ellie was a fairy (she didn't want to wear the wings because they were too scratchy) and Hattie was a witch. Hattie woke up from her nap grumpy, so she fit the part of her costume for a little while until we started feeding her tootsie rolls! My parents stopped by so they could see the girls in their costumes and they had candy for them all. We trick-or-treated in our cul-de-sac. We planned to go to the neighboring ward's trunk-or-treat since we missed ours last week. So after we trick or treated on our street, I figured it was about 6:15 or so and time to head over. It was only 5:45. Crud! What to do for 45 more minutes!?!? So we drove in our neighborhood and went to a few houses of people we know. Then we headed over to the church (it was still early--like 6:15). I felt so silly for being there just because it's not our ward. But we had a great time and felt like it was our ward in a sense since we knew so many people from being in our ward before the split.

The cultural hall was decorated so cute...The two ladies in charge are so creative and just have a total knack for decorating and they did it up! Hattie LOVED the balloons--she really, really wanted one so she didn't like that she couldn't just take one off the tables. We started with dinner--BBQ chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, chips, corn and pie. There were games for the kids to play, then it was out to trick or treat. Eliza and Libby went off together and I took Ellie around. She loved walking around saying "trick or treat" and getting candy in her bucket. Terri (thank you!!!) took Hattie around with her and apparently Hattie just had a blast. Terri said that Hattie had great manners, saying, "Trick or treat" and "thank you." She did sound so cute saying trick or treat. Plus Hattie had about a dozen tootsie rolls. She couldn't get enough! And Brian handed out candy at the car. After getting more candy than you would believe, it was time to head home. Everyone was wired! When we got home, they had to dump out all their candy and go through it, trade, sort it, etc. That took forever! It felt like it was 11:30 when we got home, but it was only 8:30!!! So by the time the candy was gone through, it was about 9:30. Libby's 8 AM game is going to come early tomorrow!